For Successful Auditions, You Have to Enjoy the Preparation

Having a process you enjoy and that allows you to have fun is essential to an energetic and engaging audition. I’ve been in enough casting sessions to know that if you’ve had fun in your preparation, that’s the energy you’ll walk into the room with and deliver on.  If, on the other hand, you’ve struggled, perhaps second guessing what you think the people in the room want to see or trying to “do the right thing,” you’ll walk in and deliver the piece in with tight, tentative, unappealing energy.

There are many boxes being checked in an audition and skills that are expected of you. Instead of looking at this as a test you could fail and preparing with the requisite fear and closed-heartedness, why not get to the result in a way that wakes up your body and heart and brings you joy?

Here are two of the many ways you can enjoy the process of auditioning more:

Use your imagination: One of the reasons many people get into acting is that they love to use their imaginations. Yet, in audition prep, so many actors tend to get too literal too quickly. In doing so, they cheat themselves out of the spaciousness that using the imagination provides.

For example, how are you going to audition to play a murderer unless you use your imagination? What would bring you to consider the act of murder? What would someone have to do to drive you to that point?

Recently, I coached an actor for a pilot about the CIA, a life so foreign to most of us, my student included. We did writing exercises to open up the imagination, followed by body and emotion work so he could really feel the tension, excitement, and fear this spy was feeling. All of this was done before we even addressed the text, intent, and relationships but because the imagination was activated and the body and heart were alive, the decisions of the piece came easily to him and were an honest representation of the qualities he had to bring to the role. Audition preparation can be fun…imagine that!

Self-discovery: In the audition, it’s you they’re looking for. Not a character but you and what you can add to the role. Having a process that gives you the tools to turn inward so as to access what’s most powerful in your personality is essential not only because all of your answers are inside of you, but because self-discovery can be incredibly exciting and rewarding. With each new uniqueness you find in yourself, the piece becomes deeper and more personal. You’ll also become stronger in your own sense of who you are.

Auditioning requires very specific knowledge of what makes you tick. It’s not enough to say, “sometimes I get angry, sometimes I’m nice,” etc. You need to know all the colors of your emotions: What makes you angry? Funny? Why do you get angry/funny at certain people and not others? How does that anger/humor manifest in the different circumstances in your life?

Jobs are gotten by actors who take the words on the page and turn them into a three-dimensional human being. How exciting to have this level of self-awareness be a job requirement!

Very little of the audition process takes place in the room or in front of the camera. For the most part, it’s you alone with the material, preparing. If you’re preparing in a way that’s making you feel defensive and stressed, you’re doing it to yourself. Why not learn and implement a technique that makes the preparation process fun and exciting? The choice is yours.

3 Things to Focus on During On-Camera Auditions

A winning audition has the feel of an intimate conversation. The actors who routinely book roles are the ones who do nothing more in the room than open their mouths, speak, and listen. This simplicity is achieved by having a way of preparing that enables them to go so deeply into themselves and the material, that the role and the actor become one.

With so many auditions being put on tape these days, this simplicity and clarity have now become essential—every actor needs to know how to work in a very personal and specific way.

You and your work need to reach out from the camera and draw the viewer in—you need to be the actor on the reel that they feel they have to watch.

We see many actors who work in a generic and nonspecific way that rings false—especially on tape. Their work doesn’t reach out from the camera and engage the viewer so much as it overwhelms the camera and looks like bad acting. These actors show they’re not ready for the job because they have no idea how to be appropriate for the camera much less use it to their benefit.

Here are three things you can focus on that will help make your next audition, on-camera or not, more honest and compelling:

1. Listening.
Film and television are primarily about images, not words. Before sound, stories got told, not through dialogue, but through the expressions on the faces of the actors. Even with sound, this is still true to a great degree—especially in auditions. Your reactions, the life behind your eyes and on your face, will have just as much, if not more, to do with you getting the job than your reading of the words. When you take the time in your preparation to personalize the relationships of the piece and then take the time in the reading to connect and react to those relationships, you are alive with all dimensions of your humanity. It is often said that words can cover the truth, but the eyes never lie. Listen well and we’ll see your soul as well as the soul of the character.

2. Stillness.
When auditioning in front of a camera, stillness is essential, but without proper consideration of the body, stillness can turn into stiffness and the actor can appear frozen. Working actors have a look of energized stillness in their auditions. They have explored their choices for their physical as well as their emotional properties, and they know the associated physical sensation of every choice.

When your choices are felt in your body as well as your mind and heart, you will be connected on all levels. There will be an actual current of energy running through you. This is the electric stillness that embodies the entire character and really pops on camera.

3. Living in your moments.
Great film/television actors don’t give back an experience or emotion until it has run through their entire being. They feel everything fully in their mind, body, and heart observing the color, shape, and texture of their emotions so that when they give them back to the world through their work, they are fully formed and completely human. These actors create moments so specific and singular that we can’t imagine the role without them. Great acting and great auditioning require this degree of emotional exploration as well as the willingness to live fully in the resulting moments.

Sometimes we will see an actor auditioning who has made a very personal choice, but because they don’t take the time to live in it, the moment is too fleeting and the choice doesn’t stick. Working actors know where their job-getting moments are—they feel them organically. They know which color, shape, or texture of each choice resonates most strongly, and how could they not—the choices are completely wired into them. And when a choice is fully realized in your mind, body, and heart you’ll know exactly how much time and space the choice needs to make the job-getting impact you need it to.

Remember, you can’t have a job-getting moment without first taking a moment.

An on-camera audition is a great test of your honesty and skill as an actor. If you are telling the truth in the most interesting and compelling way we’ll see the character as a person—three-dimensional and vibrant. If you are also a great listener, if your stillness is energized and alive, and if you’re confident enough to take your moments, we’ll see the actor we have to hire.

This is The Key to Winning the Audition + Booking to Role

In an audition, the more personally you invest in your decisions, the more specific the final result, and the more the people in the room know about what you, specifically, have to offer the role.

I write and teach extensively on how to be deeply specific in your intentions, your relationships, and your choices but today, I want to get even deeper and talk about the specificity of your connection to the other characters in a scene and, ultimately, to the reader or camera.

The first step in connecting in a meaningfully specific way is exploring all facets of the relationships. Now, I’m not talking about your ideas about the relationship—whether you think you love or hate the other person, etc., nor am I talking about a complicated backstory that puts you in your head and risks pulling you out of the moments of the scene. I’m talking about where the relationship lives in your body, how it feels.

When you explore the feelings in your body, be really specific as to where they live and how you’re physically affected. Get up, move around, put your hands on the parts of the body that are impacted, indulge in all of the sensations of the relationship.

The second step is the specific connection. The actual physical connection you make to another is the energetic manifestation of the feelings you discovered in exploring the relationship.

That being the case, we can safely say that energy follows emotion. If you decided you love the other character in a deeply passionate way and felt that passion in the pit of your stomach, where does that lead you energetically? Would it cause your body to lean in slightly at the waist? Would your breathing deepen or come quickly? Would you tighten or relax the stomach?

If you stay true to the feelings of the relationship in the audition, the energy will flow freely and create slight adjustments in your body. The emotions will then be expressed with the specific energy they need from your body. When this happens, the powerful, personal connection that results is undeniable.

You need to connect with that amount of strength because you’re connecting to a reader or camera that isn’t giving you a lot—or anything—to work with. But I guarantee when you connect with the energetic force of your emotions, the reader will start to read differently and you’ll jump through that camera and truly affect the people watching.

The difference in your auditions will be huge. While most actors think it’s enough to simply stare at the reader or into the camera in an effort to show they can listen, you’ll be connecting with the full force of your heart and your body. And this type of connection will allow the people in the room to positively answer one of the most important questions in the audition: Does this actor connect with the specificity that will ensure dynamic and compelling reaction shots?

At least half the time you’ll be on screen, the camera will be on you when you’re listening and reacting. If they don’t see the type of connection we’ve been talking about in the room or on the tape, your audition is over.

Specificity is the hallmark of greatness in acting and auditioning. But it doesn’t just apply to the specificity of what you’ve chosen to do, but also to the specificity of how you actually do it.

Practicing Presence

Pure Presence

We are pretty jumpy people these days, allowing ourselves to be pulled in 20 different directions and becoming increasingly unable to focus on what’s in front of us.

Some people are proud of this, claiming that they are geniuses at multi-tasking and get so much more done in a day than most other people.

“But how much did you actually experience today?” That’s the actor’s question. It’s the experiences of your life that add up to who you are and, ultimately, what you have to offer a role.

Which brings us to the subject of presence. The word gets thrown around quite a bit by actors and teachers as if it’s just one more thing to be ticked off on a list of positive attributes for an actor to have. “Now that I am about to go into the audition, I’ll be present.”
Not so fast. Presence is not a magic cape that you drape over yourself when you feel like it. Presence is a learned skill and it won’t show up in your work or in the room if you don’t practice it in your life.

How Being Present Affects Your Work

An audition is a series of moments. The actor with the brightest, truest, most connected moments gets the job. But how can you sustain a moment in your work if you don’t know the feeling of doing so in your life? If jumping from moment to moment is what you do 95 percent of the time, then that’s what you’ll do in the audition. Under pressure, the body goes to what it knows.

I see actors who get four pages of sides for, say, an argument scene. When I ask them about the emotions involved in the exchange, many can’t tell me, because they don’t stick around long enough in their real lives to find out. That’s where they get caught.
Walking away or checking out is not an option in a scene, and if you don’t know the feelings that occur from being present for an entire experience in your life, chances are your focus will wane and your presence will weaken before the end of the scene.

I have heard the refrain from casting so many times: “Why do actors find it so hard to stay present and involved? It’s only a 90-second scene!”
This may be a good time to ask yourself, when was the last time that you focused entirely on one thing/person in your life and were entirely present for a full 90 seconds?

Being Present in the Room

Your ability to be present in the room is inextricably tied to your ability to let your work go and simply be. Your ability to let the work go is dependent on having prepared in such a way that you have nothing to doubt and everything to be confident about.

If the piece isn’t living in your body and heart, your mind will become agitated and you’ll be policing your work and diluting your presence in the room. Being present means being free to focus totally on what is going on in front of you. But if even 10 percent of your brain is thinking about how the work is going to go when you walk into the room,
you’ll appear unfocused and fractured. And make no mistake, your inability to be totally present and connected to the people in the room will become an issue when it comes down to who books the job.

Presence also takes acceptance of your space. If you’ve prepared correctly, you know that your work will shine no matter what the environment, and you can now rest in the powerful knowledge that you are about to leave the room in better shape than that in which you found it.

Confidence exercises, affirmations, etc., are nothing but empty bravado if your work isn’t at a job-getting level.
True confidence is resting in the moment just as it is and knowing that everything you need is inside you and that you and your work belongs in that room and in that project.
And from this confidence comes the ability to be entirely present: nothing to do, nowhere to go, nothing to be—just present.

An Exercise to Be More Present in Life

During the course of your day, take at least two minutes between one activity and the next. If you’re arriving home from work, don’t run into the house. Sit in the car and complete your drive before you get out so that when you enter your home, you are present for what is in front of you. Be aware of the feeling of ending one thing and beginning the next.

We know that living fully in transitions is essential in your work. So it is in life. Fully completing one activity ensures that you show up fully for the next. If you slow down and practice with this enough, you can, on a cellular level, change your default setting from scattered to calm, from weak to strong, and from absent to present.

Another essential component for presence grounding the body and steadying the wild mind.

A grounded body and steady mind are your foundation. It doesn’t matter how amazing your technique is or how great an actor you are, if your foundation isn’t strong, it won’t sustain your work and it all will come tumbling down.

To begin with, the mind is not your enemy. It has jobs to do and it wants to do them. The issue is that some of its jobs aren’t very beneficial to the creative process. That’s OK. The wonderful thing about the mind is that it’s pliable—you can train it to behave in ways that support you as an artist.

One of the primary functions of the mind is to protect you and to keep you safe. Good. You’re still alive, so thank the mind for that. One of the ways it protects you is with the fight, flight, or freeze mechanisms located in the reptilian chamber—the oldest part of the brain. Auditioning, because you are in a new environment and in front of strangers, seems dangerous to the reptilian brain and the flight mechanism can kick in big time.

In order to be free to let go and share the amazing work that is stored in your body and heart, the mind needs to know that it can release control. Here are a couple of ways to help you do that:


The first thing you need to do is steady the mind. A good way to begin is with the breath. The mind is tremendously receptive to the messages that it receives from the breath. Breathe shallow and the mind will sense danger; breathe deeply and the mind begins to release its grip.

Breathing in a way that is specific to your needs will send the message even faster: Breaths emanating from the stomach help with feeling large and expansive; chest breaths help you relax; focusing the breath on the solar plexus opens the heart; and concentrating on how the breath feels traveling in and out of the nostrils increases focus. I went into greater detail about these breath types in the meditation blog post.

You can increase the power of the message to your brain by attaching a mantra to the breath. I think it’s a great idea for all actors to have a creative mantra—one word that describes you as an artist and what you aspire to become. Take your time finding it and if you want have a couple, go ahead. You never know how you may feel and what your needs will be.

Inhale deeply from your chosen body area, gathering the mantra into your mind/body. At the top of the inhale, say your mantra and then exhale it out into the world. The action of breathing your mantra into your body will steady the frantic and overly vigilant mind, letting it know that all is well, you are safe in your creative space, and it can take a break from guard duty so you can be free to feel, to create, and to fly.


Now that the mind is steady, it needs know what to focus on and nothing focuses the primal monkey mind more than a clear intent.

Energy follows attention — it’s that simple.

If you are unclear as to what you’re paying
attention to, the mind will become agitated and spray energy all over the place. This is one of the primary reasons for being nervous.
Intent acts as your director through the audition process. Have a conscious intent for every moment leading up to the audition. Make your intents strong and also kind to yourself (you don’t need to put yourself under more pressure than you may already be feeling).

Make intentions to have fun, to create, to share, to connect, to surprise. Make an intent for your time in the waiting room so that your attention doesn’t get hijacked and so that you stay focused and positive. Make an intent for the person/people in the room, and make it generous—“to make their day better, to lift their spirits, etc.” This sends a message to the mind that there is no threat, and that there is no one it needs to keep you safe from because you are in charge and watch it loosen its protective

I assume that you have an intent for your work, so commit to that during the reading and then make an intent for how you leave the room as well. Working in this very conscious way keeps your mind focused on the immediate job at hand so that all of your energy flows forward in support of that job/intent. Conscious intent will also make you appear clear, strong, and on purpose through each phase of the process— qualities that are essential to you getting the job.

You can try this conscious intent exercise in your daily life and see how it works. Start before you even get out of bed and see how many you can establish during the day.
Your mind is establishing the intents that it wants you to have without you even knowing it, so why not establish them consciously so that they benefit and enrich your life the way you truly want them to? You’ll also get 10 times more accomplished and have so much more energy, if you always know why you’re doing what you’re doing.

Your intents determine not only the course of your days and the outcome of your work, but the direction of your life as well.
Over a life time of auditioning you’ll make hundreds of different creative decisions and hopefully bring numerous rich colors to your work. The one constant through all of your audition experiences will be your mind and body. They will always be where the decisions and colors will originate and be housed. Only when the mind is steady and
the body is grounded will the effect of those decisions be profoundly felt and the colors be vividly seen.

Here’s another way to practice presence and get your listening and observing muscles in shape at the same time. Take a one day vacation from speaking.
For that day, speak only when you feel you absolutely need to. The rest of the time, listen. Just listen.

Feel what it’s like in your body to truly absorb what is being said to you through the three sense doors: mental, physical, and emotional. Feel the peaceful strength that comes from being completely present without the pressure to think of something brilliant to say. Tell your friends what you’re doing so they don’t have you committed, but let go of the struggle of getting everybody to understand what you are doing. Enjoy being different and just listen to them.

I have had some of my students do this “day without speaking” as part of the Life of the Actor course I teach, and it has greatly improved and energized their work. Here are five of the benefits.

1. Stronger choices.

When you get used to the feeling of being silent, one of the things you notice is that when you do speak, you tend to be very strong and specific.
After spending a day with next-to-no speech, you become familiar with how to express a range of feeling with just a few words, which is the very definition of a good audition.
When you’re working on a piece, you can tap back into that feeling of clarity when making your choices and more easily find the sharpest most effective way to convey your feelings. If all you do is talk all the time, your mind and body have no way to reference this job-winning specificity.

2. Deeper knowledge of your emotions.

Many times, the reason we talk is to escape
our feelings, but as actors, you need to lean into and learn from them. Meryl Streep has said that when she is working on a character, she spends a great deal of time exploring how the character lives in their silences. By doing a day without speech, you will have the opportunity to see how you live in your silences—making it easier to bring those feelings to a character. When you are quiet and you really stay with your emotions and let them breathe, you experience all of them.

Having a conversation about how you feel isn’t the same as truly feeling. Putting words to feelings before they’re fully felt makes you vague and unclear. Being silent and abiding with what you’re feeling will inform your speech and your work in powerful ways.

3. Stillness.

We all know that being still is essential in an audition, especially if you’re
being taped. If you haven’t explored your choices to the point that they are rooted in your body, your stillness will look frozen. However, if you have experimented with truly feeling your emotions through the three sense doors before speaking, your stillness will have emotional power and energy attached to it. Also, because silence is normally a fairly still experience, the stillness required in an audition will feel more natural and less

4. Brighter reactions.

Film and television are not mediums of speech. They are
mediums of reaction. For the first 30 years of its existence, film had no sound. The stories were told on the faces of the actors, and even though we now have sound, this is still—to a great degree—true. One of the main things you hear about actors that don’t book is that “there isn’t enough going on behind their eyes.” A day of silence is a great reactive work out. With no pressure to speak, you can really focus your emotional, physical, and mental energy on what is being said and feel the reaction on those same three levels.

During your next audition, you just may find that you take that extra split second to absorb the words being spoken and let that potentially job-getting reaction play out on your face and behind your eyes.

5. Presence.

Silence is a great way to deal with the temptation to anticipate. If you
know you’re not going to be speaking, you’re more apt to really hear what’s being said as opposed to jumping ahead to your response. This rooted quality is presence— staying in each moment as it occurs, with no thought as to what is coming next. If you spend some time practicing with staying silent, the next time you’re in a fast-paced and frenetic audition room, it will be easier for you to remain calm and be rooted in your
body. Whether speaking or silent you’ll be centered and be less likely to get whipped around by the manic energy in the room, and more apt to bring a confident, strong presence to that room. This sense of presence will also strengthen your work, as well as strengthen the confidence of everyone watching you.

Silence is a wonderful teacher. I encourage all of you to try “a day without speaking” and see what the benefits are for you. The result could make a job getting difference.

~ Craig Wallace

Conscious, Specific, Flexible Auditioning 

By Craig Wallace

Auditioning is a solitary process. You receive your sides and read them alone. You do the work of exploring the material as well as your own emotional mapping to find the most interesting intersection between you and the character alone. You sit in the waiting room alone. And finally you walk alone into the room the audition. 

With no one guiding you, it’s easy to get off track.

Let’s take a look at how you can stay conscious every step of the way.  

Conscious in Preparation

As an auditioning actor, you need a technique that leads you consciously through the preparation process so that each moment you spend on the piece enriches the character and brings the words on the page to life. This technique should act as a benevolent yet strict director, keeping you focused and on track and keeping you away from the second-guessing and neurotic repetition that can suck the life out the final read.

 Every time you pick up the sides it must be because you are improving the piece and your connection to it. And when you feel this connection, you need to be conscious enough to stop. 

A good technique, like a good director, tells you how to begin preparing, how to connect fully with the material, and lets you know when you’re finished. This is conscious preparation.

Conscious in the Waiting Room

The waiting room presents many potential challenges: a potentially long and draining wait; a comparing mind that may be seeing everyone else as better for the role; loud, insecure actors trying to psyche out the competition; and on and on. It can overwhelm you to the point of numbness.

As well as you may have prepared, if you’re not conscious of your needs through this part of the process, it can all fall apart. A good way to keep that from happening is simply asking yourself, “What do I need in this moment?” And then really listen to the answer from your body, mind, and/or heart. 

Maybe you need to breathe more deeply, maybe you need to get up and walk around, maybe it’s water or some food if you’re there a long time. How about listening to a really calming playlist?

If you continuously ask yourself “What do I need in this moment?” you’ll stay conscious from the moment you arrive to the moment you walk into the room to audition.

Your experience in the waiting room is make or break. Don’t just try to get though it— let it nurture you and help you to be your very best in the room.

Conscious in the Room

This one would seem to be obvious—of course you’re going to be conscious in the room, that’s what you’re there for! But it’s sometimes harder than it sounds to remain totally conscious and completely present when your brain is racing around taking in all of the new stimuli and your heart is beating fast with excitement and anticipation.

I have heard many actors tell me they lose their confidence when they walk into the room, and all of their work goes out the window during the read. They feel as if they weren’t really there.

This is when you can lean on the body stabilize you. When you walk in and take your place, take a moment and feel your feet on the floor. Gather strength from the grounded sensation of being firmly rooted to the earth and then take an energizing breath that expands the upper chest, opens the shoulders, and straightens your posture. Now you’ve truly taken your space and are ready to work.

When it comes time for the reading, it’s important that you’ve prepared in a way that allows you to let go and trust that your hard work will shine thorough with the ease and confidence of the true professional. If you feel yourself pushing or going flat or otherwise losing consciousness, it’s essential that you immediately reconnect with your listening. If you’ve done the work of fleshing out the relationships in the piece, listening will re-trigger your emotional connection, allowing you to relax back into the rhythm of a true conversation.

The more you feel grounded the more conscious you’ll be as you move from moment to moment—free to listen, react and respond.

It takes focused, conscious work to deliver a great audition, but with a solid technique as your guide you’ll ensure that all of your auditions will be alive with humanity:  interesting, fun, and surprising.

Conscious of Genre: 

It’s essential that you be to be conscious of the demands of the genre you’re reading for. As an example, let’s look at the world of procedurals. 

Procedural dramas, loosely defined as shows where a problem is introduced, investigated, and solved in the course of an episode, are taking over television. Not only are there more than ever before, but there are more types than ever before. We have crime, legal, medical (three new hospital dramas this season), military, and science procedurals, as well as procedurals that go all season long in the solving of one crime.

In this landscape, you will have opportunities to audition for procedurals more than any other type of show. It is therefore essential for you to have a way of working that allows you to recognize the genre, sub-genre, the type of role in the sub-genre, the requirements of that role, and that also gives you the skills to still bring your singular point of view and voice to role.

Let’s take a brief look at three of the roles most commonly cast as co-star and/or guest stars on a crime procedural, as well as some tips on how to audition for them:

Suspect. These roles are usually comprised of a scene or scenes in which you are being questioned/interviewed by detectives. There are almost always two people doing the interrogating. It’s very important when auditioning for one of these roles to establish different relationships with each of the detectives; it’s a rookie mistake to lump them together. You can tell from the lines if there’s a good cop-bad cop dynamic taking place. If not, it’s up to you to decide, for example, which of the two you find more understanding and who you find more threatening. 

If you watch crime procedurals, you’ll notice during these scenes the camera spends a lot of time on the suspect’s face, gauging their reaction to each detective’s questions. It is essential they see in the audition that you have the ability to have two separate relationships and two separate sets of reactions.

Continuing on this theme, it is also a requirement that you listen especially well in these auditions. Given that these will be heavily reactionary roles, they will need to see that you can be just as interesting in your silences as you are when you’re speaking.

Plus, there’s a lot at stake! If you’re the killer, you have to hear exactly what they’re saying in order to not step in a trap. And if you’re innocent, you need to prove it to them by answering their questions believably. All in all, there are plenty of reasons to be alive and active in your listening when you’re auditioning to be a suspect.

Witness. When you’re auditioning for a witness to a crime, you need to bring a very strong intent to the story that you’re telling. You can’t just recount the incident. If you book the role you will be responsible for delivering the emotional content, as well as the facts of the event. A personal intent that resonates deeply with you will drive you

through the description of the events and give the incident a heartbeat. Only then will we believe that it is something truly worthy of an hour’s time to figure out!

Expert. As our detectives move through their investigation, they may seek the help of a forensic expert, a coroner, a professor, a legal scholar, or some other type of expert.

These can be really fun and challenging roles to play, but understanding the requirements is essential to giving a job-getting audition.

First of all, you have to be believable in the profession for which you’re auditioning. This means of course, knowing the lines, but also having a sense of natural ease with any of the technical dialogue. If it doesn’t sound like a second language coming out of your mouth, you won’t get the job. When you’re preparing, have fun getting to know the sounds and feelings of the words, from how they feel crossing your vocal cords to where they resonate in your body. If you simply memorize the lines, you’ll sound like an actor reciting. If you take the time to embody the words, you’ll sound like an expert speaking.

Now, in order to bring all of that expert dialogue to life requires that you have a compelling relationship to your job. These roles often have no backstory and little emotional content, and yet you are a person and people come alive in relationship to what/who is important to them. So, really dig into the feelings you have for your job, how secure or insecure you are in it, if you’re passionate or tired, if it’s your world or a necessary evil. Make it interesting to you, so that the words contain the life and weight of the career as you feel it and as the expert lives it.

Also, as with the suspect, the relationships with the detectives are also key. Does the fact that you’re talking to detectives make you feel smug, enthusiastic, creepy, defensive? Which one of them really bugs you?

When you watch crime procedurals you’ll see that the people who book these roles always have a strong point of view on what they do and how they share their expertise to the people in front of them.

These are easy roles to go generic on in an audition—don’t!

The information that the expert conveys must be clear and memorable. It’s often the case that the outcome of the show hinges on something the expert said in the first 15 minutes of the episode and the audience needs to remember when and where they heard it. So, while you won’t be going into the audition to put on a huge show, you need to have great commitment to the specific decisions you’ve made for the piece.

Your audition hinges on it!

This is just a small sampling of the roles that you could be auditioning for on one particular type of procedural. The larger point is that the more specific the types of procedurals are getting, the more specific your audition work has to be.

Conscious of today’s marketplace: 

And it’s not just procedurals. You also need to be conscious of the complexity that exist in television today.

 The days of saying that a show is simply a comedy or a drama are over. Actors who will book in this environment will be the ones whose text recognition skills, technical skills, and creative skills are all operating together at a higher level than they ever have before.

Auditioning has become a more dynamic, creative process, and necessarily so, given the level of skill and creativity it takes to book a job in today’s ultra-competitive job market. Your way of working has to help you to go deep—to discover shades in yourself and in the text that will not only help you to book the job, but will also make you a better actor.

A great audition strikes the perfect balance between preparedness and flexibility.

The people in the room want to see who you are and what you have to add to the role. They do not want to see a set finished performance. This is the job interview, not the job.

If they like what they see from you, they will want to work with you, adjust you. You won’t be able to adjust, however, if you have “set” your work. You need to have prepared so that you know your intent, your relationships, and the different parts of your emotional mapping that will be become your choices. But you can’t lock down the manifestation of those choices. Nailing everything down takes away any chance of anything interesting or spontaneous happening in the room.

This is the whole story of auditioning and what so many have trouble with: You have to be prepared and know what you are bringing into the room and what you want them to see, but you need to leave the details of how it all happens to the moment. Your awareness of how you feel in the moment will provide the color and texture that is honest and appropriate for each choice.

Many actors tell me that when they perform a role it’s easier because they can prepare all the way to the finish line. But is that really the right way to go about it? How about taking the lesson from auditioning that flexibility can bring spontaneous moments of transcendence, adding energy and immediacy that can so easily be eliminated by over-rehearsing.

All performance-based disciplines carry an element of leaping in the dark. If you have a solid technique, your preparation will weave the net that will catch you. Knowing this will help you to leave room for magic in your auditions and your performances.

I’ve found that sometimes when actors have the role and are readying to give the performance, they cut back on their personal investment and count a bit too much on the director, other actors and knowledge of the scene to carry them through. They’ll never be bad, but they’ll never be great.

The art of film/TV acting is the art of expression. You’re not so much creating a role from the outside as you are going deep inside to give the role your own unique heartbeat.

Once you’ve booked, it’s time to keep exploring and working to find the truest intersection between yourself and the words.

Whether you’re auditioning or performing, you’re still acting. By focusing on what the two disciplines share, the need for deep exploration and flexibility among them, you will not only get the job, but also be able to give a much more dynamic, layered, and winning performance.

Preparation – Generosity and The Art of Being

When actors describe to me the methods and techniques they use to prepare for a role, there always seems to be so much interesting work going on! These methods address the text and the actor, and they give the actor tools to look deeply into themselves and into the role. Then there is sense memory, emotional recall, and all sorts of exercises and steps to aid the actor in creating the most complete character possible.

Most audition techniques rarely go anywhere near that deep. Many go no further than giving you some help in preparing the words and a few tips on how to appear professional.
I’ve always found this gap perplexing. If you land the role, you’re going to apply all of your acting skills and methods to bring it to life. So, how can you expect to get the role with a technique that deals with little more than vocal manipulation and outward appearances?
It doesn’t make sense, but it does hit the nail on the head as to why so many talented actors don’t book roles—they are using a one-dimensional technique to book the role of a three-dimensional human being.
Their preparation is short changing them. They need a complete technique that is invigorating, creative and puts them fully in charge of their process.
Here are five of the things a complete audition technique can help you be.

1. Well-directed. An effective audition technique has components that cover both the creative and the technical aspects of auditioning. It isn’t a series of short cuts or tricks or band-aids. It’s a process, and like any acting process that’s worth anything, it guides you to the places you need to go to find where your heart and mind intersect with those of the character. Like being led by a good director, the initial steps of your technique
should safely and gently encourage and enable you to dig as deep as you need to uncover your best self for the role.

2. Non-judgmental. An effective technique gives you the tools and the inner strength to take down the walls of your personality and get to what’s true. Before any honest work can be done on a piece, all of the different faces you show the world, all of the behaviors that aren’t really who you are, and all of the things you do to be accepted and to be seen as special have to be exposed and dropped. Like peeling an onion layer by layer, your technique should give you the tools you need to safely and courageously lay bare who you are at your core.

3. Courageous. After you have broken down the walls and re-established contact with the heart of who you truly are, it’s time for your technique to help you explore the depths and edges of your personality so that the choices you add to the piece are the strongest and most connected to you. Here again, your technique directs you to where the gold is inside of you. You can examine the colors and textures of your most elemental qualities and discover what makes them entirely unique to you. This skillfull exploration can provide the job-landing specificity some actors search their whole careers to find.

4. Perceptive. At this stage, you need to apply all of the wonderful qualities you’ve found to the piece. A complete technique gives you the steps to organize your emotional discoveries into choices—choices that bring the material to life in a singularly resonant way. It can also help you explore all of the feelings that live in between the lines.

Finally, your technique should allow you to take all of this fine work and put it into the rhythm of conversation—not a reading or a performance, but a dynamic, two-way, connected conversation. Now you’re at full strength—your technique has united your entire instrument, and you can drive through the piece with passion and commitment.

5. Present. When your choices are firmly rooted in your body and your heart, your mind can relax and get out of your way, leaving you free to release all of the work into the room with total confidence. You can take whatever risks feel right for you in the moment, knowing that the various steps of your technique have woven a net that will always catch you. Most importantly, this feeling of total security allows you to be your
true self in the room, and when all is said and done, you will be seen as the most honest, interesting, and compelling actor auditioning for the role.
Like painting over a crack in the wall, an incomplete audition technique may make you look prettier, but ignores what really needs to be addressed. A complete audition technique takes that same wall down to the studs and builds it back up, step-by-step, creating a strong, sturdy structure that will never fail to support you.

Now that you’ve done the preparation that ensures a great audition, you need to step back and let it go. Time for some generosity!
The guiding principle of generosity is that you have something and you want to share it or give it away. You can’t give the money to charity, or the time to help someone in need unless you have it to give. Pretty simple.
What about your work in an audition? Same thing. If you don’t have a way of preparing that connects you with the piece on a deeply personal level and makes you feel that you have it in your mind, body and heart, as discussed above, you will not be able to fully share it or give it away. You can’t give what you don’t have.

Here are four ways generosity can support you in your preparation and in the audition room:

Generosity gets you out of your head:

When you give something away the focus is on the person receiving what you are offering. You’re able to let go of yourself and momentarily forget about your own comfort and concerns, because you’ve made someone else’s need more important that your own, in this cast the casting director’s and by extension, the audience’s needs. Your mind takes a break from worrying about your narrow self-image because the act of generosity expands you and makes you perfect just the way you are.
When you’re out of your head, you can more easily live in your heart and for an actor, that’s where all the magic lies.

Generosity creates space for appreciation:

Nature abhors a vacuum, the saying goes, which is why when you give something away, you almost immediately get something back. A space is created by your act of generosity and into that space comes gratitude and appreciation. When you’re in an audition and you have truly given your work to the people in the room, you’ve created a space for their admiration and positive feelings to flow into. After seeing many actors hedge their bets and second-guess themselves for most of the session, it is truly a relief and a revelation to the people in the room to be given the gift of an actor’s full commitment. Your passionate generosity will almost certainly be met with an equally passionate response of appreciation, often in the form of a job!

Generosity strengthens you:

One of the reasons some people aren’t more generous, is that they think that giving will somehow diminish them. They look at generosity as losing the thing they’re giving. That’s stingy and stinginess weakens you. When you hold back in an audition and aren’t prepared to give all of yourself, you’re risking being seen as stingy, weak and scared. Generosity sends a strong message that you have more than enough and can afford to give as much as you want. You see giving as an act of abundance and when you give 100 percent of yourself in an audition you’re seen as an actor who is large, confident and complete within himself.

Generosity reminds you why you’re an actor:

When I ask people why they wanted to become actors in the first place, one of most frequent responses is that they wanted to connect with people and share their gifts. Generosity was at the heart of their decision. As you move on in your career things can get a little self-centered, you have a lot of business to take care of: your pictures, your reel, your resume, your auditions, your lines and on and on.

The tasks of the business can make you insular to the degree that the idea of sharing and giving becomes a distant memory.
Many actors take this to another level by forgetting what they actually loved about acting in the first place. They lose sight of the craft and become entirely caught up in the pursuit of success. This can make them so desperate that when they get an audition they wind up hiding themselves and holding back for fear of being rejected.

Actors who work don’t hold back, they know generosity is the key. They are wise enough to cultivate the skills that give them the confidence to say, “I will not make myself small in order to stay safe, I am here to share, to be bold and I will not let fear trample on generosity.”

A successful audition requires that you have the skills that give you the guts to extend yourself out into the room. After all, you’re not in there to do the work for yourself, you’re in there to share yourself and your work with the people who can hire you. We’re all at our best when we’re about something bigger than ourselves and generosity is a great way to make yourself more open and brave and your work as big as life

Now that your preparation id done and you have the piece in your body to the extent that you can generously release it into the room it’s time to get in there and simply be.
Because, when you are at your best as an actor—whether it be in an audition or performance—what are you actually doing? If you’re doing it well, you’re showing up, listening, and responding. That’s it.

In other words, you’re simply being.

It takes thorough and specific preparation in order to let go and
just be in the room – but as bears repeating from above: The truth of the matter is that you can’t let go of what you don’t have.

Remember, you’re doing all of that wonderful preparation so that you feel strong and connected to yourself as well as connected to the role mentally, emotionally and physically. You now feel as if you “have” the role inside of you. If you’ve done that, you don’t have to do more than show up, let go, and be
Michael Jordan used to say that playing basketball was 99 percent training and one percent being on time for the game. When he played, he was free from thinking and second guessing and could rely on his training to carry him through all of the demands of the actual game.

This is true of all great athletes. It’s true for actors as well.

You’d never think of doing a play without rehearsing, or showing up on a set without being familiar with the script and working out the inner life of your character. So how is it okay to go to an audition without having done the work that allows you to find who you are in the role and gives you the freedom to relax, connect, and be?

Working without a net in an audition is inviting disaster. If you’re just winging it in an effort to be free, you’re actually putting yourself in a prison of uncertainty. You won’t have the guts to take the job getting risks, to jump, because you know there’s no net.

Instead you’ll start “doing” by indicating all in an effort to convince yourself and those in the room that you’re in control. Well, they don’t want to see your effort, they want to see the result of your effort.

Good preparation doesn’t strangle or inhibit you. It does just the opposite. It allows you to be fully present without doubt or fear. You are working from a solid base so you can take risks, and you can jump knowing that your preparation has created a net that will support you and catch you. You have the confidence and the strength to just be and it’s being that will get you the job.

You need to do the work of acting in order to feel the joy of acting. In fact, the joy that you feel when you’re connected and free in your acting is in direct proportion to the work you have put in. This means that you need to put in effort before the audition in order to be effortless in the audition.

Brilliance isn’t a happy accident; it’s the joyful manifestation of a lot of hard work: preparation, generosity and the courage to be.

Passion, Discipline and Soft Goals – a Recipe for Acting Success!

I was on a panel recently and one of the questions we were asked was, “What do you think is the most important thing an actor needs to achieve success?” Some answers were “passion” and “determination.”

When it came to me I said, “Skills. Passion and determination mean nothing if you can’t deliver.” When asked to explain further, I said that, as far as the audition goes, the people in the room are looking to see if you have the skills to make the role come life in a way that will engage the audience and enhance the project. They want to see the effortlessly connected, dynamic result of your hard work. If you go in to audition passionately determined to blow them away, but you don’t know what you’re doing, all they’ll see is an unfocused mess—no matter how determined and passionate you are to make it good.

As an example, I said that I had just come from my accountant that day. I didn’t choose her because I admire her passion for accounting; I hired her because she knows tax law and can save me money. Same with my doctor. He may have had passion and determination to get through medical school, but all I care about is that he can read the lab results correctly and that he knows what to do when he puts the rubber gloves on.

It’s about the skill. And even though our profession has a large creative and emotional component, in the end, how frequently you work will depend on how skilled you are at getting and performing the job.

While passion and determination aren’t magic bullets and are far from being enough on their own, they can be helpful as part of a successful work ethic and as motivators to be the absolute best actor that you can be. But, it’s important to use these qualities in the most positively artistic way possible.

With determination, for example, there is a big difference between stubborn determination and artistic determination.

When I hear some actors say that they’re determined, it’s many times code for bull headedness. It means that they’re going to keep doing what’s not working, but with even more energy. Creativity is not linear. The answers that will most enliven your work and your life will be found through deep, open, and honest exploration. So, being artistically determined means that you’re aware of what you need to work on and doing that work willingly and energetically—to dive in and grow, enrich, and improve.

Determined to be a successful, working actor, but doing so in the rhythm of life and the spirit of creativity – incorporating everything that appears on your path is the way to go!

And yes, be passionate. But be passionate about the work, not the fantasy of fame and fortune. True actors are so excited about the process that they don’t see it as work at all. They have a passion for knowing themselves more deeply and specifically, and a passion for connecting to other people. They’re passionate about listening and learning about human nature. And they’re passionately curious about acting in all of its forms. They have a passionate dedication to learning and widening the scope of their art.

Having a strong sense of passion and determination and a week set of skills is a recipe for frustration and anxiety. You don’t deserve something just because you’re passionate about it. You deserve what you earn through doing the hard work of making yourself the most highly skilled professional you can be.

Someone saying that honing your skills and working your ass off may not seem as “inspirational” as telling you that being determined and passionate are going to be enough to succeed. But it’s honest.

And to real actors, what could be more inspiring than to hear that the real key to success is getting better and better at doing what they love?

To actually live this though, to be a true artist and do the work that it takes to be a truly great actor takes a tremendous amount of self-discipline.

The other performing arts have more obvious disciplines than acting. Dancers train their bodies for hours and hours a day; singers train their voices; musicians practice their instruments tirelessly.

Since acting’s requirements are less pronounced, it’s up to the actor to create the necessary artistic structure. An artist needs to live a life that supports his art and encourages development of his craft. Putting together such a life can be both exciting and intimidating, and no one can do it but you. In the “Life of the Artist” program that I teach, we help each actor create a life that keeps him living on artistic purpose 24/7. Even when life is not artistic, you are still an artist living it, and you need to experience everything through that filter.

Staying on point takes effort. Besides all of the distractions that the artist can fall into on his own, there is also the fact that many people won’t respect your artistic life and will fail to see the value in your activities. For instance, if you tell them that you need to read an hour each day to expand your imagination and improve your text recognition skills, they may dismiss this as “not real work.”

I have a student whose parents live in Michigan. They called to say that they were selling their home and he needed to fly back from L.A. to help. When he asked if his brothers, both of whom live in the same town as their parents, were going to be there to help, they responded that the brothers “had real jobs and were busy with those.” Unsurprisingly, this is how much of the world looks at artists and it takes a mighty discipline not to let these people pull you from your center.

In terms of the audition process, there are two immediate benefits to living an artistically nourishing life.

The first is that you are always in the acting gear, so that when auditions come up, you are already in the head and heart space that will create a great audition. You don’t have to try to remember what being a creative person feels like; you’re a creative person all of the time and the work of the audition is just one more expression of your continuous creativity.

The other benefit is that your artistic identity isn’t tied to just that one job. You are an artist walking into the audition and an artist walking out, whether the job is yours or not.

This does wonders in taking the pressure down and freeing you in the room to do the personal, dynamic, and risky work that books the role.

Discipline is also essential to great work. Auditioning is a process. It begins when you receive the material and doesn’t end until you leave the room. You need a way of working that gives you the discipline and focus you need to stay with each step of your process. Actors have a habit of wanting to get pretty before they’re interesting—to jump ahead in their audition prep and “solve” how the piece is going to look and sound.

In fact, an audition isn’t a problem that needs to be solved. An audition is an opportunity to explore, with diligence and determination, yourself, and a piece of material, until you find the most honest and resonant intersection of the two.

Creativity without discipline is just a mess. But, like the dancer and the musician, the great actor knows that beauty and truth don’t happen randomly, but come about through the concentration, perseverance, and vulnerability that discipline provides.

If you have chosen the path of the artist, you need to develop the discipline to stay on it —to not waver, to move forward with focus and clarity. Starting with the moment you wake up in the morning, everything you do needs to feed your artistic soul and give you the energy and motivation to continue to act and to grow—to be an artist all day, week, month, year, and lifelong.

And as you continue to develop and grow as a passionate disciplined artist, it’s a good idea to have goals that inspire you and encourage you to work toward.

There’s a lot that is positive in having guideposts to work toward in a career that is, by nature, unpredictable and unstructured.

Charting your progress by results on the other hand can be both dangerous and discouraging.

I had an actor say to me the other day that his goal is to book three co-star roles in the next six months. That’s not a goal, but a desire for a specific result that, because of circumstances entirely out of the actor’s control, will probably not work out.

Enforcing your agenda on the business is not goal-making, it’s an attempt to control the uncontrollable.

Results are guaranteed to no one.

Here are some thoughts on the differences between goal-focused and result-focused people:

• People focusing on goals tend to embrace process.
• People focusing on results tend to want shortcuts.
• Focusing on goals keeps you connected and aware.
• Focusing on results can create blinders that shut others out.
• In achieving goals you learn to be flexible and to problem-solve.
• In trying to achieve a result you become rigid and stubborn.
• Goal-oriented people are present for every step of the journey.
• Result-oriented people only show up for what they think will get them what they want.
• Goal-oriented people are open to help, knowing that sometimes they’re not the best judge of what is best for them.
• Result-oriented people can be closed off to any way but their own
• Goals create positive energy.
• Striving for results creates anxiety and fear of failure.
• Goals are rooted in realistic accomplishment.
• Results are rooted in desire and fantasy.
A poignant example of the difference between goals and results took place s couple of years ago at the U.S. Open, which saw Serena Williams two matches away from the grand slam
—a feat only three other female tennis players had achieved. She was playing someone to whom she had never lost and it looked like a clear path to the final. But somewhere in the second set you could see her really start to think about the result.

She fell out of the moment and forgot to take care of the business at hand. Suddenly,one of the greatest tennis players of all time couldn’t move her feet, breathe, or even get her racket back in time to hit the ball. The hugeness of the destination pulled her off the path.

Her opponent, with no expectations as far as the result went, (she had a plane ticket home that night!) was able to focus on the moment and achieve her goal, which was simply to play her best tennis in her first grand slam semi-final. And she won.

Presence in the moment always trumps desire for an outcome.

Now let’s see how the goal- and result-oriented actors fare in the audition room:

• The goal-oriented actor is excited for the experience and the chance to test how far they have come.
• The result-oriented actor looks at the experience as an obstacle to their desired result.
• Goal-oriented actors are present and available in their auditions.
• Result-oriented actors can be anticipatory and closed off.
• Because they are present and available, goal-oriented actors tend to be people with whom you would want to work.
• Result-oriented actors are harder to like because they are showing up for the job and not the audition, so it’s unclear who they really are.
• Goal-oriented actors lean in to the work and the room, experiencing all of the moments with a fresh, open mind.
• Result oriented actors can be defensive, not fully engaged in the room, and risk averse in their work for fear of losing the job.
Power comes from relaxation not tension, so don’t tie yourself up in knots over the result. Make your goal to savor the experience of the audition—to be present, connected, dynamic, involved, available, flexible, and likable.

And in a larger way, make your goal to have your goals fueled by passionate determination and disciplined, focused work.

How to Show Casting You’re Set-Ready

By Craig Wallace

When talking about their auditions, I often hear actors say things like:“I think I gave a good audition” or that it “went well.” They felt “ok in the room,” the read felt “pretty good,” and that the people in the room “seemed to like them.” It’s all almost as if the audition was a test and they passed with a solid B.

But what about an A+ audition? One that proves you’re good enough to do the job? After all, that’s what an audition is about. Framing it any other way entirely misses the point of why they were in the room.

At its best and highest form, an audition is you showing the people in the room that you are ready and able to do the job; that you have the chops at that very moment to walk onto the set and deliver as a multifaceted, creative, and flexible actor as well as a solid, strong, and dependable professional.

You need a way of working that allows you to exceed all of the actors who are just preparing to do well in the room. You need to prepare in a way that allows you to exhibit the greatness that lands you on the set. So here are three of the things that need to happen if you’re going to be seen as set-ready.

1. Variety of choice.

Let’s first be clear that this doesn’t mean making a series of random and bizarre decisions for the sake of trying to be original. It’s about finding the choices inside of you that connect you to the words on the page in the most dynamic and truthful way possible.

A television director friend of mine says that he likes to see a range of choices in the audition so that he knows he has options when the scenes are being shot. He may decide at the last minute to change the tone and needs to know the actors have the range to handle different scenarios.

Sometimes, it’s the opposite. The director will say, “Just throw it all away and say the words.” That’s their decision for the scene in that moment, but if that’s all you show them in the audition, they may assume that’s all that you can do and will choose someone who gave them more options.

They also know from your audition that you can “just throw it away,” and it will still be interesting and multifaceted because your dialogue will contain all of the colors of the choices they saw in the room.

2. Ease.

There is an ease to the actors who book the job. There is no neediness or sense of apology. These actors are confident, natural, and present during every moment of the process. Their work is done on the inside so their minds, bodies, and hearts are free to take in and be a part of their surroundings and connect to everyone in the room without distraction. They are someone you look forward to working with, someone you like. And remember, people hire people they like.

3. Adjustments.

Nothing tells the people in the room if you’re ready for the set more than how you handle an adjustment. When you deliver a solid, professional adjustment, you’re showing them that you’re a smart, creative actor who has great control over his work, and also that you have the skill to move easily and effectively in all directions.

By not overcooking the adjustments but instead weaving them into the fabric of your initial reading, you’ll show that you understand an adjustment is a shift, not an overhaul, and that you can take direction by incorporating subtly and truthfully.

Adjustments will also reveal how prepared and flexible you are. Actors who book are the perfect combination of both!

If you’re underprepared or winging it, you won’t have enough control over the piece to know what you’re adjusting and the whole piece will crumble under the weight of the adjustment. If you’re over-prepared and have run the piece 100 times, you won’t be able to shift because the piece will be cemented into your head one way and one way only.

An audition isn’t an end unto itself. It’s a job interview and in order for it to be a success, you need to exhibit the skills, presence, and confidence of the job getter, not the tentative, people pleasing dullness of one more actor auditioning.

Good auditions end in the room but great ones can land you on the set.

Introduction to Meditation for Actors – a 4 part Series

By Craig Wallace

Part 1

The ability to calm and focus the mind is essential to an actor’s success, in an audition and in a performance. I see how neglected this discipline is when I’m teaching. I’ve found that problems arise for an actor not so much from lack of understanding, but from the lack of focus and concentration it takes to apply what is being taught and follow it all the way through the process.

It used to surprise me when I saw actors struggling to sustain concentration for a 90-second reading. But when you consider that we’re living in a time of chronic technological and social overload, it’s actually no surprise at all. We have so much information coming at us from so many different directions and devices that our ability to stay with a thought or a feeling for more than a nanosecond has been seriously compromised. Frankly, our minds are in chaos.

One of the simplest and most effective ways to move from chaos to clarity is through a meditation practice. Meditation is a very big part of my life, and I have had a dedicated daily practice for the past fifteen years. Recently I’ve become intrigued and inspired by all of the different ways mindfulness meditation is being used to improve people’s quality of life. In fact, some of the largest corporations in the world, as well as hospitals, universities, governments and even the army have implemented mindfulness programs to improve focus, concentration, and clarity.

With so many different individuals and groups reaping the benefits of mindfulness meditation, it only seemed fair that there should be a dedicated practice designed to meet the needs of the auditioning actor. So, with the help of two of my teachers, I did just that and The Meditation for Actors Class was born!

The practice we created helps actors regain control of their wild, distracted minds. It strengthens concentration and establishes a stable inner environment that allows the actor to explore their emotional life safely, deeply, and kindly. This practice also develops and refines the ability to focus and fully live in each moment and makes space in the mind, body, and heart to breathe, to listen, and to create. In fact, the applications of meditation to the acting process are seemingly endless.

I have been very inspired by the depth, clarity, specificity, and strength that meditation has brought to the work of the actors who have taken this class. Callbacks and bookings are on the rise, and rooms that used to intimidate are now being handled with control and presence. These actors are living proof that sometimes the most effective technologies aren’t the newest, but the ones that have been tried and true around for 2600 years or so!

Now, let’s continue on this beautiful and powerful journey.

Part 2

When actors call me to ask for help on an audition, I ask what they’ve done with the piece so far. Many times the answer goes something like this: “I looked at it really quickly on my iPhone in the car then called my agent to get more information. Then I read it again and sent a couple of texts to people who know the casting director. Then I called you.”  This type of response makes me cringe.

If you allow yourself to read the material for the first time with a scattered and unfocused mind then you have chosen to put that frantic mind in charge of making your creative and technical decisions. It’s like getting on a bus knowing the driver is on crack.

Your entire audition can be made or broken by what happens during the first few minutes you spend with the sides. You only get one shot at reading a piece for the first time, and if your mind is agitated you’ve wasted a golden opportunity to take the material in with emotional openness and mental calm.

Here’s a healthier thing to do before you read your sides for the first time. Find a quiet place to be and sit. Don’t look at the material. Don’t read the breakdown. Don’t call anybody. Just sit. It’s time to get mindful.

One of the primary benefits of mindfulness mediation is increased focus. This is achieved by putting your attention on one object and keeping it there. The breath is a common object of attention in meditation, as it’s always with you and it’s portable.

Sit on the floor – preferably on a cushion or pillow with your legs crossed if front of you and your knees lower than your hips. Sit straight, but not rigid with hands in your lap or resting on your thighs. You can also meditate sitting in a chair keeping both feet firmly planted on the floor. Here is a link to help you out:

Now, close your eyes and take three deep breaths to get you started. Let your body settle and let your mind relax, breathe normally, and focus on just the in breath and the out breath. (You can label the breaths as “in” and “out” if that helps.) See if you can feel the breath going in and out at the tip of the nostrils and put all of your focus on that spot and on the sensation of the breathe traveling in and out of the tip of your nose. When your mind wanders – and it will – just come back to the breath, labeling in and out and focusing on the sensation of the breath at the tip of the nose. If you are new to meditation, start with five minutes. That will seem like an eternity so don’t worry and don’t try to overachieve. Meditation is not a contest.

Right before the time is up, take three more deep breaths, again noting the in breath and the out breath and the sensation at the tip of the nostrils. Open your eyes and sit for a moment to reorient yourself. Get up slowly, stretch, take one more deep breath, and NOW pick up the sides and do your first read though.

You will find that your mind is relaxed, focused, and open. It’s not chattering and offering a million opinions. It’s quiet and receptive. Your heart will also be more open, and you can more easily establish an emotional connection to the material.

By making the choice to sit still and focus – instead of running in circles – you have put yourself in control of your mind and heart, thereby making yourself open to all possibilities and on your way to an energized and creative audition experience.
Given that mediation is an experiential practice, it’s a bit difficult to write about the mechanics of it, but give these instructions a try and let me know if you have any questions.

In parts 3 and 4 I will talk more about the subtleties and nuances of mindfulness mediation practice.

Part 3

In the last article in the Meditation for Actors series, we discussed the importance of having a quiet, focused mind when preparing an audition piece and we learned some basic mindfulness meditation techniques.

In order for meditation to be beneficial, you have to do it, and do it with some degree of consistency. It’s also important that your practice doesn’t feel like a chore but instead feels relaxing, nurturing, and energizing. Here are two ways to personalize your practice and make it something you look forward to doing.




Assume your meditation position, close your eyes, and establish your home breath. Now, say the manta to yourself on the “in breath” and release it on the “out breath.” You can play with also saying it on the out breath as well, whatever works and motivates you to meditate. This is a beautiful way to practice right before starting your audition preparation as it provides you with a motivating, focused intent for you work. It can also be a very useful exercise to practice in the waiting room to calm and center yourself just before you go in to your audition.



And now, let’s take these wonderful practices into the audition!

Part 4

So far in this series, we have discussed the relevance of meditation to the audition process and introduced some basic techniques to quiet and focus the mind and relax the body before and during your preparation. In this final installment we’ll address the waiting room.

I have heard described, and seen with my own eyes, many of the ways that the time spent in the waiting room can break an actor down.

You’ve prepared the piece at home and feel really good about it. You drive or ride to the audition excited, hopeful and energized. You walk into the waiting room oozing confidence. And then it happens: you see three actors who you believe look better for the part than you do and you start to doubt. Or, the session is running late and you have to wait for an hour and a half and your energy starts to drain. Or, there’s an actor who is loudly telling all within earshot about his latest successes and bookings and you start to second guess. All of a sudden, the confident person who walked in 10 minutes before becomes a small, tentative ball of worry and fear.

It’s time to calm down and bring some mindfulness to the situation.

Meditation comes to the rescue once again.  There are many meditations that would be of value in dealing with the stresses of the waiting room. I will give you one that has helped a lot of my students. It’s called “Body Like a Mountain.”

Sit in a chair and either close your eyes or fix your gaze downward. Picture a mountain. If you have a favorite, picture that. See how big and strong and immovable that mountain is. See the birds that fly around it, the trees that grow on its face, the rain that falls on its surface, and notice that no matter what, the mountain stays still and strong. Say to yourself “Body like a mountain.”

Next move to your breath. As you note your “in breath” and “out breath,” picture the breath as the wind that blows around the mountain. See how it moves the trees and carries the birds. Say to yourself “Breath like the wind.”

Now, see the blue sky above the mountain. See how clear and vast it is and picture the sky as your mind – bright, sharp and peaceful. Say to yourself “Mind like the sky.”
Stay in your seated position while picturing the mountain, the wind, and the sky, and keep repeating, “Body like a mountain, breath like the wind, mind like the sky.”  

Any smallness that the waiting room made you feel will dissolve as you link your mind and body with the power of the elements. This particular meditation also has the benefit of relaxing you and energizing you at the same time, so no matter what is going on in the waiting room and in your head, it will have a positive effect and you will walk into the audition room a tall, confident, and focused actor.

You can hear a guided version of this mediation on the Meditation for Artists Mp3 at

Essentials of Booking the Job in Today’s Marketplace

By Craig Wallace.

Auditioning has changed so much in the past few years. While it was once enough to “play the role,” it is not nearly enough today. The actors who are scoring the jobs are the ones that know how to truly embody the role. They have the ability to make the words come alive in a connected, honest, and dynamic way.

To do this requires a way of preparing that allows you to go deeper than the competition—a way of working that doesn’t look at auditioning as a problem to be solved, but rather a dynamic, creative art form all its own.

Here are two ways that can help free you to creatively and skillfully embody the role and book the job:

Get rid of “right” and “wrong.”

 Of course the casting director, producers, director et al. have some idea of what they’re looking for in the role you’re auditioning for. However, they are having a session, which means that they need answers—answers you have to provide for the character they’re casting: Who is the person behind the words? How do they breathe and feel? How do they look? Why do we care about them?

The only right answers to those questions are your answers.

If we must use the words right and wrong: the “right” decisions about the piece are the ones that connect you to the words on the page in the most honest and compelling way possible, the decisions that allow your voice, your energy, and your heartbeat to come through loudly and clearly.

So if there’s anger in the scene, you need to make sure that it’s not generic anger, but anger the way YOU would express it. If there’s humor, don’t just try to “be funny” in a way you think will please the people in the room; be funny as YOU are funny.
You are you and everyone else is not—no one will be pleased by you hiding parts of yourself in an effort to do what you think is the “right” thing.

Ultimately, they will decide whether or not you’re right for that particular role. But you can be assured that even if you don’t get that one, if you were true to yourself in the audition, they will have truly met you, gotten to know you, considered you, and they will most certainly see you again.


 The reason many actors fall short of embodying a character they’re auditioning for is because they prepare primarily from the mind. But what they should be focused on—where the answers to the questions you need to answer about that character reside—is the body and heart.

A creative way of working is needed so that you can deeply explore how you feel instead of what you think.  

In life, when you experience anything, that experience is taken in first by the body. The sensation the body feels causes the limbic center of the brain to produce a corresponding emotion and this emotion triggers a thought. This order of experience—body, heart, then mind—is also the way a good audition is prepared. It’s essential that the mind is quiet enough that you can actually feel how the words on the page cause your body to react.
When you’re reading the angry part of the scene, how does that anger manifest in your body? Does your stomach tighten, your breath shorten etc.?

These physical reactions will determine the specificity of the emotion that’s produced: your anger, not just some vague idea of anger. And in the funny part of the scene, what does funny feel like to your body? Where are you affected? What emotion is triggered by those sensations? And now, what are your thoughts about those emotions? Does your anger cause you to feel thoughts of justification or revenge? Does your humor engender thoughts of joyful glee or caustic sarcasm?

Exploring in this way guarantees that the people in the room see an embodied person because you’ll be experiencing all of your emotions in a thoroughly human way: physically, emotionally and mentally. And every line you speaks will be rich and fully dimensionalized.
Instead of tearing your hair out trying to decide what’s right and wrong, you need to be fully engaged in a creative process that frees you to explore the full range of what you have to offer the words on the page. If you work this way, you won’t be just another actor acting the part; you’ll be the true embodiment of the role and that will go a long way toward making you the actor they have to hire.

Now that you’ve embodied the character, it’s time to being them to life with the qualities that are specific to you. In other words – to make the role YOURS! So, let’s get specific.
I was in a casting session recently for a series regular role on a pilot. The role was that of an angry, rebellious mid-20s male. The scene was with his brother and mother and was three pages long. There were 42 actors seen for the role. You might imagine that there was a lot of yelling and screaming going on, and you’d be right. As a matter of fact, disconnected, generic rage was the order of the day and at the end of the session, there were only three actors who truly stood out as contenders.

When it was all over, the CD said that she was really impressed by the fact that those three had made such original and different choices. At first, I agreed, but after giving it some thought, I changed my mind. Their choices weren’t different. They had also made the choices of anger, frustration, and rage—the scene didn’t allow for much else.

The difference was that they had a way of working until they found the colors within those choices that represented their specific personalities. With most of the other actors, you got the feeling that they looked up the definition of anger in a dictionary and just “did that.” The three in contention weren’t “doing” anything. They were simply “being” angry in a way that was so specific and compelling it appeared they were doing something entirely new.

Specificity is the hallmark of great acting and is also the main component in a successful audition. Here are two ways move from the generic to the specific:

Work with the body.

 Emotions live in the body, not in the mind. The mind’s primary job is to keep you safe by providing logic and context. In an audition, a safe and logical reading will never book a job because safe and logical thoughts do nothing to humanize the words on the page. Add to that the fact that acting is not about thoughts—no one really cares what an actor is thinking—it’s about feeling: how you feel and how you can make an audience feel.

To go back to the above-mentioned audition, the three actors who understood what was required of them found the feelings of anger and frustration in their bodies–they literally embodied these emotions. That’s what humanizes and illuminates the words on the page and that’s why you need to be looking for your answers in the place where you feel, the body, not the place that you think, the mind.

Go beyond the label. 

There is no such thing as anger or sadness or happiness, for that matter.  Those are just labels. The label we give an emotion is actually the sum of a number of different emotions. For instance, if I ask you to describe anger, you’re going to do so by giving me a list of other emotions. “Anger” as an emotion is actually nonexistent, it is simply a word that we apply to a set of emotions that produce a certain feeling. So, the actor playing a definition of anger will be flat and generic, not to mention dishonest, because there is actually no such thing. The actor who feels the way that anger lives in their body discovers all of the emotions that are in play. Their anger is alive and fascinating to watch. They are the embodiment of a specific type of anger and casting knows that the audience will relate to and identify with this complex, three-dimensional human being.

The lesson here is to have a way of working that allows you to calm the mind and explore your body’s emotional mapping so that you can find the specific feelings that make up the emotion. This is the specificity that books the job. Everyone else may choose anger, but your anger will not be about volume and indicating, your anger will be a window into your soul. Live the feelings behind the label.

In many large ways, we’re all the same. Human beings have basically the same qualities and desires.  But, while we may all contain the same emotions, we feel them very differently. It’s the actor who has a way to go deep inside his body and heart in order to explore the specific makeup of his emotions who will break out as an individual. And that’s the actor who gets the job.

Now, let’s go into the room and get that job!

To say that we’re in the richest time in television history is an understatement. Not only is the quality of the writing phenomenal, but the quantity has skyrocketed as well!
As studios, cable channels, and streaming services continue to churn out product at this furious pace, it’s becoming harder and harder for them to break these shows out and get an already over-saturated audience to give their show a try. There’s also the hard-to-ignore fact that audiences’ attention spans are getting shorter and shorter. With the ability to stay focused on one thing at the eight-second mark, the executives in charge are demanding ingenuity more than ever from all the creative and technical departments. Sets, lighting, costumes, hair and makeup have to be eye-catching in ways they never had to be before. 

And so do the actors.  

As far as auditioning goes, the days of a nice smooth reading being enough to get the job are gone. You need to show that you have what it takes to grab the audience’s attention and keep them riveted for the entire length of the time that you’re on camera. Finding and executing your moments is key to auditioning this way; it’s what I call having the ability to “hook and hold.”

It begins with having a way of working that enables you to break down the text and discover the moments the writer is offering you. Remember, it’s not the showiest actor who books the role, but the actor who moves the writers’ story forward in the most compelling way.
After the mind has dissected the text, it’s time for the body to take over. The decisions that will get the job and create your most dynamic moments are found in the body and heart. The words need to transform, through you, into a three-dimensional human being. The emotions that will enable this transformation live in the body. 

When you mine your body and heart to find your connection to the piece, your decisions will be grounded in the truth of your life and the piece will be enlivened by your vision. You’ll then find that the moments will grow organically out of the work and become a powerful representation of you and all that you have to offer the role. 

Now that you see where the strongest moments of the piece live for you, your body will tell you what those moments need in order to have the highest impact. Do they need space, time, a breath, pace? If you have found your decisions by exploring the emotional mapping of the body, this same mapping will let you know how to handle the moment. Remember: delivering your moments isn’t choreography, so stay with the body and let it guide you to the most honest manifestation.

When you work this way, you’ll be more than just the next actor reading the scene. You’ll be the actor who hooks their attention and holds it for the entire length of the scene. And if you’re being put on tape, even better. You need moments that pop to get the people watching to pay attention to a taped audition. If you have those moments, you’ll not only hold their attention, but you’ll show them that you have the knowledge of what acting for the camera is all about and the skill to deliver. Being camera-ready is an essential component of a job-getting audition. 

The bar has been raised and more is being demanded from the auditioning actor than ever before. But from what I’m hearing from casting, most actors are seemingly unaware of this and remain behind the curve. It’s not just about having a “good” audition (whatever that means), it’s about connecting to the text, your decisions, and your moments in a way that shows the people watching the effect you’d have on the audience if they hired you. They need to see that you have the talent, charisma, and skill to hook the audience and take them on a ride they won’t want to leave. 

It’s all in the moments.